We are making it quicker and easier to manage bond transactions. Tenants, landlords, and property managers will benefit from greater visibility and control over their bonds — all in one place. Find out what this means for you and what you need to do.

Changes happening 1 December 2025

We are launching Bond Hub, an online self-service tool, which will allow landlords to see all of their bonds in one place and lodge new bonds or top ups quicker than now.

Landlords will need to register and verify their identity with RealMe, Microsoft or Google. Landlords will then have access to their own dashboard in Bond Hub, providing visibility of their lodgement requests, top up requests and active bonds.

Tenants will be able to complete their side of bond transactions via an email link sent from Tenancy Services. These relate to responding to refunds and paying for bonds if nominated by their landlord. They will not need to register or login for this.

Bond refunds will be processed the usual way via our Bond Refund Form until this process is moved to the Bond Hub in 2026, giving users greater flexibility and control.

Landlords and property managers using property management software integrated with our business-to-business connection, will have the enhanced ability to initiate bond refunds from within their property management software.

Benefits of our changes

  • Faster bond transactions, including lodgements, top-ups, updates and refunds.
  • Real time visibility of bond transactions for landlords and tenants.
  • Greater consistency in service during busy periods.

Get ready for changes now

To get ready for the upcoming changes, landlords will need to:

  • have a RealMe, Microsoft or Google account to verify their identity. This will be required when logging into the Bond Hub from 1 December.
  • if Tenancy Services issues you a new Landlord ID via email, please keep this number safe. You will need it to access bond information and complete transactions through our updated systems.
  • ask tenants to update their email address with Tenancy Services
  • Tenants will need to update their email address with Tenancy Services by emailing with their:
    • full name
    • tenancy address
    • email address
    • mobile phone number
  • save their Tenant number for their current tenancy when they receive it from Tenancy Services via email.

Consider getting property management software

Landlords and property managers should consider investing in property management software that connects directly with Tenancy Services via our business-to-business connection.

There are various different software vendors in the market to choose from. Our business-to-business connection allows property management software to:

  • do bulk bond lodgements, where more than 1 bond is lodged in a single transaction
  • do bond top-ups of existing bonds
  • track the status of requests
  • make direct debit and direct credit payments
  • do bond refunds completely online (from 1 December 2025).

The following software vendors have already integrated with our business-to-business connection:

Software vendors who would like to integrate with our business-to-business connection can subscribe to the Tenancy Bond API through MBIE’s API cloud platform. Read about how to set up and use the API.

Tenancy Bond API – API.business.govt.nz(external link)

Pet bonds by 1 December 2025

Pet bond transactions will be introduced online on 1 December 2025, once the law changes relating to tenants keeping pets takes effect. For now, landlords cannot charge a pet bond. They also cannot charge a pet bond for pets that were already agreed to before the new rules take effect.

More information about what it means for you when the new rules take effect will be provided in the section Tenancy law changes.

Tenancy law changes

Rules about pets

Lodge your bonds online now

For now, bonds can be lodged via our current webform or by using third-party software that is integrated with our business-to-business connection.

Lodge your bond online(external link)

Charging a bond

Lodge your bond using the business-to-business connection

Topping up existing bonds

You can top up existing bonds using the online form on our website.

Lodge your bond online(external link)

Bond refunds and other transactions

For now, bond refunds and changing information on bond records must still be requested by using the correct paper form. There are updated forms for these requests, download and use the latest version available on our website.

For bonds lodged on or after 2 December 2024, or if your bond number starts with 'BN', you need to submit a copy of the signature page from your tenancy agreement when requesting a bond refund. This is a temporary process until we move bond refunds online.

Refunding a bond

Keeping a bond record up to date

Help and support

If you need help with lodging a bond on the Tenancy Services website, call our Customer Service Centre. We cannot lodge the bond for you over the phone, but we can talk you through how to use the online form or Bond Hub once it has launched.=

Customer Service Centre: (Call-free from within New Zealand.)

0800TENANCY

0800 836 262

If you use property management software, contact your software vendor for queries about their software and functionalities. They will be able to confirm when any new functionality is available, and how it will work in their system.

Keeping up to date

We will be keeping tenants, landlords, property managers and software vendors up to date with our tenancy bond service changes in the coming months. We will be updating our website so you can know what the changes mean for you and if you need to take any actions. Keep an eye on this page for the latest updates.

We are currently hosting a series of information sessions online to provide updates ahead of the end-of-year changes, as well as attending various sector conference across New Zealand. We look forward to seeing you there and hearing your feedback on our services.

You can subscribe to our Tenancy Matters newsletter or follow our

Facebook page for the latest updates.

Subscribe to our newsletters(external link)

Follow Tenancy Services on Facebook(external link)

 

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